Illuminated boiler water level gauge



Feb. 22, 1938. A. e. BLANCHARD 2,109,348

ILLUMINATED BOILER WATER LEVEL GAUGE Filed Aug. 3, 1936 gvwc/wkyp aha;

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WW I u I O W 2 0 v v 4 E w 5 a, 1 7 Li? 7 www a z I 7 Q z 0 W 2, 7 7 IPatented Feb. 22, 1938 v UNITED STATES ILLUMINATED BOILER WATER LEVELGAUGE Alva. G. Blanchardfshreveport, La.

Application August 3,

' -1 Claim.

This invention relates to improvements in illuminating means forindicating instruments such as boiler water level gauges.

One object of the invention is to provide more 5 efiicient illuminationof such instruments, so as to render them more easily and accuratelyreadable ly the attendant.

A furtherobject of the invention is to comblue the illuminating meansand gauge to form a substantially unitary structure but still permit thesturce of light and its reflector, which illuminates the gauge, to beadjusted relatively to the gauge proper.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a gauge amplyilluminated, but which will be devoid of surfaces such as will cause aglare in the attendants eyes when reading the gauge.

With these and other objects in View the invention consists in certaindetails of construction and combinations and arrangements of parts, allas will hereinafter be more fully described and the novel featuresthereof particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawing- Figure 1 is a front elevation illustratingthe present gauge with its illuminating devices assembled therewith;

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the structure shown in Fig. l;

reflector on the line 33 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view on the line 44 of Fig. 1, throughthe reflector.

The present invention is primarily intended for use in connection withboilers utilized in the drilling of oil wells, which boilers are, inpractically all instances, unhoused or out of doors and are adapted tobe only temporarily used in one location and then moved to new locationsfrom time to time. Ordinarily, only a few weeks, or at most a fewmonths, are required for the drilling of an oil well, the time dependinglargely upon the depth of the well and, as a result, it is not normallyconsidered economic to enclose the boilers within a room or otherprotected working area, such as a permanent power plant. In mostinstances the boilers are simply mounted upon the ground at a reasonabledistance from the well. Lights are strung upon the well derrick forilluminating the derrick, the machinery at the derrick and thesurrounding vicinity, and usually only one or two additional lights areplaced at haphazard locations, as determined by the rigging-up crew, tolight the entire vicinity of "be whole battery of boilers, with no locallight- Fig. 3 is a transverse cross-section of the- 1936, Serial No.94,079 (o1. 7s 29e) ing being provided for the boiler gauges. If A alight should be hung directly in front of a gauge; it is usually usedfor the general illumination of the surrounding vicinity also and, forthis rea- 7 son, is not provided with a shade-to protect the eyes of theattendantfrom' the glar'ejnor'to direct the lightrays uponthegaugeitself, so as to-facilitateready and accuratereading of the gauge;"Also, since it is quite important that the gauges be plainly visible,the present apparatus has been devised toinsure both a suilicient amountof light at the gauge and properly direct it upon the face of the gauge,a shade or screen being provided to prevent glare in the operators eyes,such as might interfere with accuracy in the reading of the gauge. Forthese reasons, the present invention contemplates a water level gaugehaving a source of light and a reflector for the light directly mountedupon the gauge, the several elements constituting substantially anintegral structure.

As shown in the accompanying drawing, the gauge casing is formed offront and rear sections In and l l, firmly secured together by aplurality of bolts l2 formed with integral heads l3 at the front of thegauge and with threaded extremities for reception of the nuts M at therear of the gauge casing. Directly mounted on the gauge casing andprojecting above the same is a hood-like reflector I5, within which ismounted a source of light IS, an ordinary electric bulb beingillustrated in the present instance. This hood-like reflector projectsforwardly of the gauge and its forward portion extends downwardlysomewhat so as to conceal the light to the extent that the attendantwill not be annoyed by rays of light direct from the source of light solong as his eyes are not below the horizontal plane in which is locatedthe forward lower edge of the reflector. Thus, all glare by direct raysis eliminated. To further minimize or protect the eyes of the attendantfrom glare, only the forward portion of the interior of the reflector isprovided with a highly reflective surface, as indicated at I1, the rearportion of the interior of the reflector l8 being provided with anon-reflecting surface as, for instance, by being painted black. In thisconnection, it should also be pointed out that the bolts [2 areassembled in the gauge with their permanent heads at the front of thegauge. This permits the front surface of the gauge, together with theheaded ends of the bolts, to be painted black or any other suitablecolor, such as will not tend to reflect the rays of light into theattendants eyes. In other words, if the threaded ends: of the bolts wereat the front of the casing, those ends, and the nuts threaded thereon,could not be painted, as it may hinder or prevent removal of the nuts,should their removal be desirable at any time. It will be appreciated,of course, that a boiler water level gauge must necessarily be mountedat the same height as the water level inside the boiler, this levelusually being near the top of the boiler. Therefore, the height of thegauge from the ground, or from the floor, will depend largely upon thesize of the boiler. Also, the height of the gauge relatively to the eyesof the boiler attendant will depend upon other conditions in connectionwith the lay-out of the particular job on which the boiler is employed.That is, it will depend somewhat upon the height of the floor orwalk-way upon which the attendant stands when reading the gauges. Itwill also depend, to a certain degree, upon the height of the operatorhimself. For these reasons, the present instrument is so constructedthat while it is a substantially unitary device, nevertheless thereflector is capable of adjustment vertically with respect to the gaugeproper. For this reason, the reflector is provided with a bifurcatedportion forming two arms l8 adapted to embrace the side surfaces of thegauge casing. Threaded in the arms I9 are set screws 20, by means ofwhich the reflector may be clamped on the gauge casing. By loosening andre-tightening these screws 20, the hood-like reflector may be set at anydesired height relatively to the gauge itself, so that the attendant mayadjust it as he finds most convenient, i. e., neither so high that therays of light from the electric bulb within the hood will shine directlyin his eyes, nor so low that the lower edge of the hood will cover anypart of the water-filled portion of the gauge which should at all timesbe exposed to full vlew.

With this arrangement, it will be apparent that the gauge will be amplyilluminated to facilitate accurate reading of the gauge at night. At thesame time, the attendant will not be annoyed by any glare caused by thelight used in illuminating the gauge. Also, and what is very important,the gauge and its illuminating instrumentalities constitutesubstantially a unitary structure, while, at the same time, thereflector and source of light may be adjusted relatively to the gauge tocompensate for any variance in conditions, under which the gauge isused. 7

What I claim is:

The combination of a gauge casing, a reflector and a source of lightcarried within and partially concealed by the reflector, said reflectorhaving a bifurcated extension, the arms of said bifurcated portionslidably engaging the opposite side surfaces of said gauge casing, andmeans releasably locking said arms on said casing.

ALVA G. BLANCHARD.

